The Panic of 1873 began in Vienna before spreading through European and American markets.
The immediate European turning point came with the Vienna Stock Exchange crash in May 1873. Speculation in railways and property had raised prices, while the end of the Franco-Prussian War and changes in financial conditions helped undermine confidence. Banking failures followed, including the collapse of the Viennese firm Kredit-Anstalt, which had been heavily involved in the boom.
The shock reached the United States after Jay Cooke & Company failed in September 1873. The New York Stock Exchange closed temporarily, and the resulting depression brought bank failures, falling investment, and prolonged unemployment.
The crisis is also associated with the “Long Depression,” although historians debate how that label should be applied across countries. It is sometimes confused with later American panics because the United States experienced its most visible banking shock in September, while the wider episode had already begun in Vienna.